Meal plan help!

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Hi,


I'm very MSE on certain things, cooking however and meal planning are not my forte


There's 3 of us at home (me, DD1 - whose 9 - DD2 whose nearly 5) but we all eat at different places:


Monday: Breakfast (all) Lunch (me) Dinner (all)
Tuesday: Breakfast (me) Lunch (me) Dinner (me)
Wednesday: Breakfast (me) Lunch (me) Dinner (me)
Thursday: Breakfast (me) Lunch (me) Dinner (all)
Friday: Breakfast (all) Lunch (me) Dinner (all)
Saturday: Breakfast (all) Lunch (all) Dinner (all)
Sunday: Breakfast (all) Lunch (all) Dinner (all)


On the days the kids don't eat at home they either eat at school or at my parents


I need to start meal planning but I'm useless. I've tried getting inspiration from Pinterest but to be honest I end up sticking to "chicken" or "pasta" which gets REALLY boring REALLY quickly.


I have a slow cooker, which I've barely used......


Can you point me in the right direction / give me some tips on what to do?!


Thanks!

lilian1977

Firstly, I would get the kids together and ask them for their top 5 favourite meals. Then think of your own and split them into lunch type meals and dinner type meals. So for instance if one favourite is beans on toast, either have that as a weekend lunch, or a dinner on a night when you're more rushed (Thursday nights for instance).

Secondly, think of cheap ingredients that you can buy in bulk (I don't mean take over your spare room with pasta, but buy a couple of at a time). So if a favourite meal is spaghetti with tomato sauce, always make sure you have a few packets of spaghetti and a few tins of tomatoes in stock. Look out for those things on special offer as well when you're shopping.

Once you have those lists, you can start to put a plan together. Try and alternate favourites with cheap-to-make meals. When you're eating alone it's easier to make a jumble meal, so maybe when you're eating alone on a Tuesday lunch/dinner you could use up whatever is left in the fridge before you go food shopping again.

Good luck!

jackyann

Also think about a cheap (ish) roast for a Sunday: gammon (or chicken!) then cold with jackets / cole slaw in winter or potato salad / salad in summer; left over bits for sandwiches, soups, add flavour to risotto or similar.
A chicken or a small-ish gammon joint should do 2-3 main meals + some lunches.

Batch cook basic mince and freeze in portions, then you can make bolog, chilli, lasagne, shepherds' pie etc. etc.

And my favourite tip for random left-overs: either chop into salady things, or heat up; serve the lot either with vege rice or "patatas bravas" (roast cubes of potato with chilli) and call it "tapas".

msb5262

When I did a meal plan, I decided to do a month's worth of meals. Started by listing obvious things we had regularly e.g. spaghetti bolognese, then asked children to remind me of things they liked. Added stuff like "frozen pizza" or "fishfingers and chips" here and there, asked a couple of friends for inspiration and finally I had 28 meals. I made a chart on my laptop with 28 slots and started randomly spreading the meals out, making sure that things like pasta-based dishes didn't appear on consecutive days, and thus created a 4 week meal plan.
Lunches at weekends were either sandwiches, something on toast or soup. For breakfasts mine have always eaten cereal but if you like, you can work out a weekly thing e.g. fruit salad on Monday and Thursday, bacon rolls Tuesday and Friday, porridge Wednesday and fruit, bread and yogurt at weekends.
This 4 week thing made my life much easier as I didn't have to think too much once it was sorted, and I used it to create shopping lists for each week. It also meant we didn't have the same thing week in, week out but if your kids are desperately keen to have perhaps sausages every week, you can do that. See how it works for you. Good luck!

maman

I don't disagree with asking the children for favourites but sometimes you don't get the answer's you want. I speak from experience because if I ask my DH for ideas, pies always feature heavily!


My meal planning is a very simple affair.


DH makes our breakfasts so I just buy in a range of ingredients and he chooses day to day. We mostly have something cooked (variations on eggs and beans) but also cereal and porage.


Lunches we do our own thing and as I'm generally at home I have leftovers, jacket potatoes, soup or omelettes. I tend to make large pans of soup and freeze in portions and then provided I have eggs in and something I can put on the jackets I can ring the changes. DH has a more usual sandwich crisps and piece of cake/biscuit but he sorts that out himself I just make sure ingredients are available (cheese, ham, tomatoes etc). You might be happy to have a sandwich at lunchtime and use my ideas for your evening meals on your own.


For dinner I just write down the 7 days of the week and seven meals next to them. I keep some ready meals (home made if you can) in the freezer for days when there's just one of us at home, cross out any days we're eating out and then work around what I've got in the freezer before buying anything else. I'd always recommend at least one or more meals that can cook straight from the freezer like fish or burgers. It's not just useful when you're busy but they can stay in the freezer if there are any changes of plan.


Ideas for meals will depend how healthy/frugal you want/need to be. There is a thread on meal plans that might give you ideas. You already have chicken and pasta so just adding fish, pizza, sausages would give variety. I'm reluctant to suggest too many if you need to learn to cook it could be daunting. I love good old egg, chips and beans!